


erupt.

by shortbreadd



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Angst, M/M, Magic, The major character death is Andrew and he comes back dont worry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-06 12:38:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20291590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shortbreadd/pseuds/shortbreadd
Summary: Neil Abram Josten was nineteen years, two six months, ten days, one hour, and three minutes old when he erupted.Everything leashed inside Neil was simply set free. Ten years worth of pent up rage and fear and emotions all released in massive shockwaves of magic. Tide after tide of pure energy sweeping out of him.Long ago, Neil’s father had written him off as a failure; a simple fire mage that lacked the talent and precision to take over his title as the Butcher. Just another mildly powerful child to sell to the Moriyamas.What Nathan hadn’t known then was what exactly young Nathaniel’s power was. It wasn’t just a simple fire element, but something more. There was no name to put to his element then, and there still wasn’t now.





	erupt.

Neil Abram Josten was nineteen years, two six months, ten days, one hour, and three minutes old when he erupted. 

Everything leashed inside Neil was simply set free. Ten years worth of pent up rage and fear and emotions all released in massive shockwaves of magic. Tide after tide of pure energy sweeping out of him. 

Long ago, Neil’s father had written him off as a failure; a simple fire mage that lacked the talent and precision to take over his title as the Butcher. Just another mildly powerful child to sell to the Moriyamas. 

What Nathan hadn’t known then was what exactly young Nathaniel’s power was. It wasn’t just a simple fire element, but something more. There was no name to put to his element then, and there still wasn’t now. 

Neil’s element was something that encompassed the vast anger of all-consuming flames; something that captured the burning cold of frostbite spreading over every surface in sight. It was the destruction that earthquakes wrought in the earth, something that could never be contained. It was the devastation of tsunamis and hurricanes swirling through oceans and could level entire cities in one fell swoop. 

It had been trapped in Neil’s body for over a decade with curse-runes, inked by Mary in stolen cars, hunching down into the backseat as to not be seen. Those runes suppressed Neil’s power by Mary’s force of will, until she died. 

The inks started to fade and dissolve into Neil’s blood; to start to let a wisp of his power through, into a somewhat powerful water and ice mage. It was almost fitting; how Nathan had thought that the whole extent of his magic was fire, and when it had come back after years of being locked up, it had been Mary’s element that first came back. 

Still, what Neil had worked with for a year was just a tiny sliver of his true magic. It had stayed pinned up by his lingering fear of using his powers, and guilt of disobeying Mary’s last words. Until now. 

Until his father had burst into Palmetto- into his home, and dragged Neil out of there. Until something had snapped, while Nathan was threatening to cut his tendons. Until that crack, that crack made from months of Andrew and Kevin and the Foxes had widened into a fissure, and that fissure spread into a gate wide open. 

The first blast had killed everyone in the Baltimore house. The second blast went instead inside his own vessel, healing cuts and burns. The third blast spread wide into the surrounding cities, likely giving a very strong shock to anyone in a five mile radius. 

Neil managed to stop the fourth blast from spreading, and contained the rest, waiting for the shocks to fade. _It was going to be alright,_ he thought, surrounded by the corpses of Nathan and Lola and all the rest. 

It was going to be alright, until the basement door burst open, and Andrew Joseph Minyard himself stood at the top of the stairs. His golden eyes were blazing and the earth was rumbling, and knives in hand. 

“No,” Neil managed to mouth, before his magic swelled and crested, the remaining grief and regret tiding up and detonated. Something that could only be described as pure energy expelled itself from him. 

He watched, helpless as it hit Andrew like a brick wall. Andrew’s mouth opened in a surprised _o_ and his hands released the knives. His body crumpled and his open mouth and eyes slowly started glowing until light shone from his face like miniature suns. 

He looked heavenly, but Neil knew that his body couldn’t manage it. All of the rest of his concentrated energy had been absorbed into Andrew, and it was going to be too much. The light spread from Andrew’s face and into his veins until it looked as though his body was covered in cracks like a porcelain doll. 

The magic was burning through Andrew from the inside out. Andrew was an extraordinarily powerful earth mage, but his vessel wasn’t built for this sort of strain. The light pulsed once, flaring like a dying star trying to maintain its brightness just for one more moment, and Andrew dropped like a stone. 

Neil tripped over his own feet trying to get to Andrew. When he pushed Andrew on his side, he recoiled. Andrew’s face was gray and hollowed, cheeks sunken in and skin ashen. It looked like the very life had been sucked out. 

Neil didn’t need to check Andrew’s pulse to know that he was dead. He hugged Andrew close, and pressed his newly healed cheek to Andrew’s shoulder. And began murmuring. 

You see, Neil’s power may have been destructive and cataclysmic, but there was also the soothing warmth of a fire on a cold night in him. There was the cool breeze on a hot day; green grass and flowers and trees growing in even the harshest conditions. Most of all, the healing aspects of water in washing wounds in rushing creeks and clear lakes. 

He held Andrew in his arms, and sent pulse after pulse into his broken body. Healers had never managed to bring someone back to life. It was something that was always impossible, and improbable. Despite this, Neil kept trying and trying to break through the impenetrable wall that was death. 

Magic was rushing freely under his skin and rushing into Andrew, pushing and prodding and trying to heal over injuries that didn’t exist. Neil kept bumping into that wall, searching for a crack. There were none. 

There was no way to force it open, short of breaking that wall from brute force. It should have been impossible, but Neil had always been a living contradiction. He pushed and pummeled and heaved until finally, impossibly, a crack formed. 

Neil’s magic swept into that tiny crack, and expanded until the wall was quaking; a touch away from shattering. And all it took was one, feather-light push, and the barrier shattered. In his arms, Andrew gasped for breath, and the gray was already fading into flushed, healthy pink. 

_”Andrew.”_ he whispered. 

_”Neil.”_

_”I’m here.”_


End file.
